Model Gloria-Sophie Burkandt, daughter of Bavarian Prime Minister Söder, spoke publicly about the four years she had suffered from anorexia.
Image: dpa
How sick is the social activity on the internet making young people? An international analysis sees Instagram and Co as risk drivers, but the corporations can breathe a sigh of relief.
FResearchers speak of a self-reinforcing spiral of risk: the longer young people are active in social media, the more perfect the others they meet online appear and the more their own conscience stirs – not because the others are really becoming more beautiful, but because the filters keep getting better, the images more and more perfect and the number of likes more and more enticing. Does this social media logic throw young people out of mental balance, does it even make them ill? The question is becoming more and more pressing.
Two out of three young people today have regular access to social media, and none of the popular platforms like Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook or We Chat are really doing anything substantial to minimize mental health risks for the youngest. On the contrary: research in Great Britain has recently shown that 42 percent of children who fall under the minimum user age of 13 years are actually registered with their own account on one of the platforms. Nevertheless, the crucial question could still not be answered with certainty: is the overconsumption of social media really connected to the mental health problems that are plunging more and more young people into a deep crisis – including serious illnesses?